It is now well accepted that automated pool cleaning devices, such as self-propelled pool cleaning vehicles are essential to the proper maintenance of a pool, whether the pool be above or below ground. The typical vehicle includes a housing, a bottom frame and a filtering member, such as a filter bag, held between the two. The vehicle includes intake and outlet ports.
As the pool cleaner moves along the surface of the pool, water flows into the intake port and through to the filter bag. The typical pool cleaning vehicle includes a pump which creates suction. The suction helps cause the housing intake door to open and allow water to flow therethrough as the vehicle moves.
Upon entering the filter bag, the pool water is cleaned. Dirt and debris are trapped wherein the filter bag. Water then exits through the outlet port, cleaner and with less dirt and debris prior to re-entering the pool.
While this type of cleaning is required and essential for the maintenance of pool water, it is also insufficient. Water must be fit for human contact before it can be usable as pool water. Thus, it is simply not enough for the water to be clean or in other words, relatively free of dirt and debris, it must be sanitary.
In order to sanitize the water and make it fit for human contact, chemicals such as chlorine, are typically are placed in the pool water. However, adding chemicals to pool water requires some precision. Obviously, adding too much of a particular chemical, such as chlorine, could equally make the pool water dangerous and unsafe for human usage.
Thus, a balance needs to be struck between no chemicals or too little chemicals and too much chemicals. A large number of pool owners employ experts in the field of pool maintenance to add the proper chemicals and in the right amount to the pool. Maintenance of this type is continuous and can easily become quite expensive.
On the other hand, pool owners find adding the proper chemicals in the correct amount time consuming and quite tedious using manual methods. Pool water must be measured and referenced. Then on a regular basis, such as weekly, the pool owner will check his water chemical levels. The pool owner will then need to measure and add the proper amount of chemicals.
Quite clearly, being expert at testing and measuring and adding chemicals to pool water is not an easy task. It is a tedious task and one that requires constant vigilance. Even an occasional mistake can lead the pool water to be unfit for human use and contact. In such cases, a pool sometimes will need to be drained. Quite clearly this is not desirable and should be avoided as much as possible. This is especially so in drought prone areas where water is almost always at a premium.
There are current and past floatation devices in the past which have included cages for holding solid chemicals and openings for allowing chlorine to mix with the pool water. The chlorine mixes with the surface water of the pool and is only partially effective at adding chlorine to the water. The surface water is the most exposed to the sun of all the pool's water and the chlorine is most likely to evaporate and become ineffective as a result of being on the surface the quickest. Additionally, the mixing of the chemicals on the surface does not necessarily penetrate to the lower levels of the pool water.
What is needed is an automated device, which can, over time, add the proper chemicals and the proper amount of chemical to pools. Also, needed is such an automated device, which ensures proper mixing of the chemicals with the pool water.